Outside transitions

Barry Walsh brings skateboarding
back to the backyard

SKATING LIKE IT’S 1984: Walsh

by LUCAS WISENTHAL

To say that Barry Walsh has skateboarded on a wide variety of terrain would be an understatement. At 39, he’s been featured in glossy skate magazines riding some of the most recognizable transitions in the world.

But Walsh is a product of skating’s grittier days. Reared in the ’80s, he and his peers rode ramps that were hidden in backyards—or anywhere else that could accommodate them, however temporarily— and fashioned from whatever materials their architects could get their hands on.

“Before the skateparks, that’s what people did here,” Walsh says. “And if you were lucky, you’d find a good backyard ramp.”

Walsh’s latest endeavour harkens back to that bygone era. He and his partner, Karim Sikander, along with a dedicated contingent of skaters and workers, recently built a halfpipe in a Griffintown alleyway. “We’re kind of trying to bring back the essence of roots-rock skateboarding, backyard- style,” Walsh says.

But it didn’t happen overnight. Last year, Walsh approached the owner of Vélomakak at 215 Murray about building a ramp in the alley next to his store. Following a meeting this spring, a clean-up of the space began. Construction of the ramp then got underway.

The end result was the Urban Ambush yard—named for Urban Ambush, the skate company and collective rooted in Walsh’s longrunning Embassy MTL crew— which houses a halfpipe about 7.5 feet high and 18 feet wide. It’s got 7.5-foot transitions, 12 feet of flat bottom and three-inch coping, a good size for lip tricks. In other words, it’s a scaled-down vert ramp that will make for a steep, fast ride. And that’s just what Walsh and his skate circle were looking for. “We want to do straight-up inverts. We want to blast airs. You can’t do that on any of the ramps built in this city.”

The ramp is also a nod to the concrete pipe at the Olympic Stadium, the spot with which they’ve become all but synonymous. “We wanted a bigger version of the Big O, but we didn’t want it as tight. We wanted it to be a bit more rideable,” Walsh says.

While some skaters would keep that sort of terrain private, Walsh and company welcome anyone who wants to ride. “We’re down with everybody so long as they come with common respect,” he says. In addition to a good attitude, a $5 donation—to help cover the cost of the ramp—is mandatory.

The ramp and the Art Shelter, a space the crew and Vélomakak rented in the building that neighbours the bike shop, will be the site of regular skate and art events, including a monthly skate jam and party. This Saturday, Aug. 7, as of 5 p.m., it will host the premiere of Jeremy Elkin and Jason Auger’s latest skate video, Elephant Direct (screening at 9:30 p.m.), which Elkin calls a slice of “underground street skateboarding life.”

Walsh is happy to see it all come together. The yard is “a little dream we’ve had for a while,” he explains. Indeed, the shaded ramp with a rooftop terrace overlooking it is reminiscent of the drawings readers would submit to Thrasher magazine 20-plus years ago. Far removed from the average skatepark, it’s the stuff of classic skate fantasy. “Obviously, you can see the atmosphere in here,” Walsh says. “We may as well be back in 1984.”